Hole saws are well known in the art and are generally used to assist a user in cutting a hole in a construction material such as wood or metal. In general, two types of hole saws are known. One is known as a carbon hole saw which is formed of carbon steel and generally used to cut a hole in a softer construction material such as wood. The other type of hole saw is known as a bi-metal hole saw which is generally manufactured as a combination of a carbon steel body and high speed steel teeth and used to cut a hole in a construction material such as metal.
Hole saws are connected to a drill via a hole saw mounting apparatus with many variations in construction ranging from rudimentary mechanisms well known in the art to more recent mechanisms newer in the art.
With some conventional hole saws, the hole saw, mandrel and drill bit are manufactured and assembled as a complete system. When a user wishes to cut a hole using this type of conventional hole saw, the user simply mounts the system on to the drill and proceeds to cut their hole. When the user wishes to cut another sized hole, the user is then required to disengage the entire hole saw system from the drill and then replace it with another hole saw on, and re-engage the entire hole saw system. This is quite time consuming and may contribute to the delay of the completion of a project.
In some other conventional hole saws, the hole saws include quick connect means so that the hole saw may be quickly disengaged from the drill after use. However, in these hole saws, quick connect means, although quicker than previously mentioned hole saws have shortcomings to their quickness. For example, one hole saw with such quick connect mean includes the drill bit mounted directly into the quick connect means thereby requiring the user to initially install the drill bit into the quick connect means, align the drill bit through the mandrel and into the hole saw and locking with the quick connect in preparation for use. This requires steps that are time consuming and require particular visual alignment. Furthermore, the assemble results in a drill bit with more than desired play to pilot the hole saw cutting operation. An example of such a system is schematically shown in FIG. 1.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide a universal quick connect system for a hole saw which overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art.